Art Fairs

Art Basel Miami Beach (1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, Florida) — (VIP preview: Wednesday, December 2, 11am–8pm) Don’t expect subversive but do expect bright and mirrored and expensive. You have to go— no really, you do. This is the ultimate status shopping mall. Where else can you behold tons of museum-quality stuff ready for the next oligarch’s showroom.

Design Miami (Meridian Avenue and 19th Street, Miami Beach) — (Collector’s Preview: December 1, 12–6pm; Vernissage: December 1, 6–8pm) — Bigger and more important than ever, Design Miami is a great showcase of the latest in luxury design. This year’s entrance commission is by Harvard Graduate School of Design students.

Ink Miami Art Fair (1850 Collins Avenue, at 19th Street, Miami Beach) — (No preview; fair runs December 2–6) — A small hotel fair with a love of multiples. Nothing over the top but usually a quality stop.

Miami Project&Art on Paper (Deauville Beach Resort, 6701 Collins Avenue, at 67th Street, Miami Beach) — (VIP preview: Tuesday, December 1, 5–10pm) — These sibling fairs have taken over the former NADA venue to present one fair for those into paper and the other for those into lesser-known galleries with some serious rosters. I always go expecting surprises.

NADA Miami Beach (The Fontainebleau Miami Beach, 4441 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach) — (VIP preview: Thursday, December 3, 10am–2pm) — The Lower East Side of art fairs, NADA does a great job of selecting galleries that prefer MFA-approved artists who are hungry to assimilate into the mainstream. Collectors can never get enough of this one.

A display by Ghost of a Dream (courtesy Davidson Contemporary) at last year’s Pulse Miami fair. (photo Jillian Steinhauer/Hyperallergic)

Satellite art fair (at six different venues in Miami Beach, check their site) — (VIP preview: Tuesday, December 1, 4–10pm) — From the artist-run spaces at Ocean Terrace Hotel to curated a exhibition at “The Garage,” this is quirky and eclectic and trying a very decentralized model (with a shuttle bus).

The Untitled art fair has the added draw of being on the beach. (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Untitled (Ocean Drive and 12th Street, Miami Beach) — (VIP preview: December 1, times not public) — This is probably the most curated of the art fairs and it is bright, on the beach, and thrives on a youthful vibe.

X Contemporary (247 NW 24th Street, Wynwood, Miami) — (VIP preview: Tuesday, December 1, 5–10pm) — One of the new kids on the block, this fair is New York heavy (though a smattering of Philadelphia, Seattle, and other locales also factor in). There’s also a curious number of small exhibitions to accompany the fair, including one devoted to Abstract Expressionist Grace Hartigan and another to Keith Haring’s classic Pop Shop.

Museums and Private Collections

Bass Museum of Art (2100 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach) — The museum’s building is closed for renovations through the fall of 2016, but it has curated a pop-up Rachel Harrison show across the street in the Miami Beach Regional Library (227 22nd Street) that you might want to check out.

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (1018 North Miami Avenue, Miami) — They are presenting Cuban artist Gustavo Pérez Monzón’s first solo exhibition in the United States, featuring nearly 70 works created between 1979 and the late 1980s.

Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (4040 NE 2nd Avenue, Design District, Miami) — If you love dry and graphic conceptual art then check out the two solo shows at the newest museum in Miami’s Design District. One exhibition features video and performance artist Alex Bag and the other is by graphic-design-influenced artist Shannon Ebner.

One of the large works by Anselm Keifer at the Margulies Collection (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse ( 591 NW 27th Street, Wynwood, Miami) — There’s a lot of major works by Anselm Kiefer on display, but also major works by Sol LeWitt, Willem de Kooning, George Segal, Susan Philipsz, Isamu Noguchi, Dan Flavin, and a site-specific piece by Olafur Eliasson.

Pérez Art Museum Miami (1103 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami) — The beautiful building designed by Herzog & de Meuron is a great setting for art, and currently there are special projects by Jeff Wall, Nicolas Lobo, Bik Van der Pol, and others on display. There are also exhibitions devoted to contemporary Aboriginal Australian abstract painting and a solo show devoted to Nari Ward.

Rubell Family Collection (95 NW 29 Street, Miami) — The Rubells are showing off their collection of female artists in their luxurious 28-gallery, 45,000-square-foot museum. People always love to talk about what the Rubells have on display.

Wolfsonian Museum-FIU (1001 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach) — One of the Art Deco jewels of South Beach, this design museum currently has special exhibitions exploring depictions of US race relations in the art of the New Deal era, responses to mechanical catastrophes of the modern age, and the migration of tropical plants from Latin America to US gardens.